His Favourite Book

Chapter 44 - Flower Bracelet

Trigger Warning: Mentions of blood and scars

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"You're late, Mr. Purohit!" Aashna proclaimed as she saw Abeer stepping his feet on the rooftop floor, right out of the entrance. He was wearing a deep pink Hoodie with rolled-up sleeves and Navy blue pants, making Aashna freeze her sight on his ethereal figure.

"I apologise from the depth of my heart, Your Highness." He bowed to her and sat on the ground beside her, at their usual spot, under the beach umbrella, while both of them chuckled to wipe out any hint of awkwardness in the atmosphere. It was rather apparent that they were meeting in person after what seemed like aeons.

"So? Any specific motive for this spontaneous meet-up?" Aashna shattered the ice with an obvious question to an ultra-obvious repose that she desperately wanted to hear from him in articulation.

"You need a rationale to meet someone after they've been patiently awaiting the completion of your critical jobs?"

Aashna raised both her eyebrows at the realisation and blinked her remorse away while endeavouring to break the eye contact she was incapable of holding. A chilly breeze blew, attacking her face and propelling nominal salty liquid to flee the clasp of her cornea. Blood surged throughout her face giving it an internal red tint all over. As usual, she was wearing a long-sleeved kurti and over that, a sleeveless jacket, that evidently did its job of not shielding her from the frostiness.

Abeer clicked the now-red tip of her nose to acquire her attention. "Do you like kids?"

"HUH?"

"I asked, do you like kids, miss huh?"

"Uhm... yeah. A lot, frankly. Why?" She covertly punched herself for thinking of absurd things.

"Good. Here. See this." Abeer extended his phone, whose screen was busy displaying a photo. "My two-year-old niece. Nitya."

Aashna excitedly held his phone in her hands, ever so carefully, as if that itself was the fragile figure of his niece. "AWWW!! KOOCHOO! She's so cute, oh no, I'm getting cuteness aggression right here, ARGH! And that's an adorable name! Nitya."

"Hehe, I know right? I remain the same now that she stays with me all day."

"Yeah because she's endearing. Have you got more photos of her?"

"Exhaustingly loads. Just swipe there."

"Wah, okay!" Aashna kept swiping all of Nitya's photos and continued chucking authentic commendations for all of them. Meanwhile, something knocked the furthest lining of her brain as she questioned, "You don't have your own photos on your own phone?"

"I'm not very... photogenic." He pressed his lips, suppressing a coerced smile.

Aashna paused her swiping game and observed every nook and corner of Abeer's face. People periodically become conscious of their looks. Just like she was when she saw Drishti, a flawlessly sculptured individual. "I see. Would you mind if I say this?" She handed his phone over to him.

"What?" He approved as he saw her bringing out her phone.

"Starting today, it becomes my responsibility to capture your life and store the stills." She abruptly clicked a photo of Abeer's stupefied expression. She spared it a glance and began laughing at the silliness of that picture. She extended her phone to show the same to Abeer, who sheepishly beamed and looked down at his lap. He slowly uncovered his phone while Aashna was still busy giggling and capturing his shots from distinct angles.

The exposed insides of his phone's cover revealed some pressed flowers. The same ones he had once pointed out at her balcony. The very same ones she had pressed and sent for him right before his Art Competition. Aashna's giggles unhurriedly faded and her smile turned into that of a delighted sentiment. "You still have it?"

"Obviously. Who throws away pressed flowers and that too such pretty ones?" He pushed her forehead using his index finger.

"Ow!" She fake cried and giggled again. "I thought you'd be using them somewhere..."

"Yeah, I had thought of sticking them into my daily journal, but couldn't. I didn't want to cling them to paper once and forget about them later on. This way, they stay near my phone and me all the time and I never forget about them." He said every word with genuine authenticity and again embarrassed himself, realising how cheesy it sounded out loud.

Aashna beamed. Scarcely had he looked any away when she asserted, "Give me your hand."

Abeer's vision shifted to her as his hand extended itself towards the said direction. He saw her producing a transparent adhesive tape from her bag and then cutting it into a medium-sized length.

"You carry tapes and scissors with you?" He asked.

"Not always. During the competition, they do not provide us with anything to put up our posters. We have to carry our own material so-" She held his wrist, fetched it closer to her and fastened the tape, forming a clear bracelet with the adhesive side up. Picking up one pressed flower at a time, she adhered it to the freshly applied tape. This formed a pretty DIY flower bracelet on Abeer's wrist. She secured it further by sticking another piece of tape over the flowers, this time the adhesive side down, concealing the flowers in a lamination.

He was overjoyed with the accessory he was just rewarded with. "Thank you! This is-"

"AAAAAHHHHH!" A female-voiced scream was heard from a close distance, just after a long screech of a motor vehicle. Aashna and Abeer dashed to the corner of the rooftop to have a look down at the road. Quicker than thought, a crowd was gathered around what seemed like an accident. The exact scene was not visible but they could make out the presence of the head of a person, which oozed out an unusual amount of blood, forming a pool across the road.

"Oh Shit!!" Aashna and Abeer dashed out to the scene as no one seemed to be coming out for help. On their way, Abeer had called for an ambulance. By the time he explained to the listener his know-how of the scene, they had reached the far end of the crowd. Navigating through the useless, only-there-for-a-view people, Aashna finally reached a spot from where she could, at the least, see the victim, a girl's body clearly.

The moment she recognised the face, her lips parted in shock and her eyes widened in fear. "KHUSHI!" The employee at Girisha's book cafe was now lying on a road, as lifeless as the crowd surrounding her. Aashna screamed her name multiple times at the top of her lungs and recklessly pushed the people out of her way. In the ruckus, an imprudent person refused to conform to her force, causing her kurti's sleeve to get stuck in some discreetly obscure element.

With a ripping sound, Aashna's sleeve fell out- torn off from the other part of her ensemble. Her arm, right from her shoulder to her fingertips, was clearly visible to the world. What was clearer were some semi-healed cut marks all over her upper arm. The exposed skin was highly pigmented, trying its level best to heal itself, but had seemingly failed. The time frame beginning with her registering the ripping sound and ending with her actually noticing the visibility of her scars, was long enough for the people around her to unmistakably notice all of it. She stuck her arm to the rest of her body in a foolish attempt to hide again what was already publicised.

Her steps halted, losing all their capacity to reach out to the lifeless body of Khushi lying meters away from her. She could not choose a single feeling from the two lethal options of mortification and dread. Only when she hung her head low, she felt a warm, thick piece of clothing around her exposed arm. Shifting her sight to her arm and then behind her, she saw Abeer covering her body with his hoodie.

"Let's go." He quickly whispered in her ear before carrying her with him towards Khushi's lying figure.

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A/N: Just to clarify, Abeer was wearing a t-shirt under his hoodie so things are decent as of now XD

See you in the next chapter! :)